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December 15, 2012

Great-Grandma's Painting Comes Home

Oil Painting by Mary Louse Facey Elgie ca 1910

Yesterday hubs was given a very nice oil painting done by his great-grandmother Mary Louise Facey. Mary Louise painted this a few years after her marriage to William Elgie in 1904.

Apparently Mary Louise was a prolific amateur artist, giving her paintings as gifts for weddings, birthdays and so on. She and William did not have much money and a painting was affordable.

Because her paintings were given to distant relatives and friends, they were spread around the community and surrounding areas in south-western Ontario.

Mary Louise Facey Elgie 1882-1973

Years later, Mary Louise's daughter Florence Elgie, watched for local auctions and estate sales where she knew her mother's paintings might be found. She attended every one she possibly could and bought as many of her mother's works as she could find.

Several of the rescued paintings were given to hubs' mother and aunt abuot 16 years ago. Then one was recently passed on to hubs' sister.

And now this painting has come to hubs courtesy of his mother who was Florence's niece. Today we're going to decide where this lovely painting will hang. We hung it temporarily in our sunroom while we think about it.

Hubs has a painting done by his grandmother Mary Demeulenaire Massey which has pride of place in our living room so this new painting by Mary Louise Facey Elgie is a welcome addition.

I'm an incurable collector of
antiques, an avid genealogist and a messy but creative cook! I blog, i write history and genealogy books. My main genealogy website is Olive Tree Genealogy http://olivetreegenealogy.com/

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